It was the sad realization that I was becoming diabetic, that forced me into doing something about my weight and eating patterns. After a couple years of failing by following the Usual Advice(c) of eating less and moving more, avoiding fats especially saturated ones, etc... I decided to learn human biochemistry directly, discovered a lot my doctor apparently didn't know about diabetes, glucose metabolism, and yet some more... I successfully replicated Tom Naughton's "improving your blood lipid panel while eating fast food for a month by applying one caveat" experiment in April 2007, and picked up low-carb paleo by winter that year as I kept reading more. This cured all the diabetic symptoms I had suffered for years in a matter of days. Interestingly, I also went down from size 12 to size 4 over the following 9 months without any calorie counting or sport, cured myself of a long-standing depression, a creeping arthritis in my left knee, gastric reflux, insomnia and bruxism, and I regained the running endurance I had in my teenage years - without training.

Nowadays I only weigh myself from time to time to make sure it keeps working, and so far it does.